One of the shows I find myself watching these days? Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
I won't lie; I have a lot of fond memories of that show. I was in my late teens when it aired the first go round; in 1993, I was sixteen, going on seventeen, and oh boy, did I have a crush on Joe Lando (that's Sully, for those of you keeping track) and Chad Allen (Matthew Cooper).
It's 2017 as I write this, and forty is in the rearview mirror now. But, I discovered all the seasons of Medicine Woman were available, and over the past few days, I've been binging on them. I'm nearly finished with the second season as of this writing, and i'm having all sorts of warm fuzzies.
A few disconnected notes, and then I'm going to get to the point of why I'm writing this.
- Joe Lando looks as good to me now as he did then. Maybe even more so, because I've gotten older and have refined my tastes.
- Chad Allen does not.
- Hi there, CBS Stunt Casting. Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Kenny Rogers, and John Schneider.
- Do they EVER explain why Olive disappeared and Dorothy came in to take her place? Like, what happened to the hurdy-gurdy dance business? And her ranch? Matthew mentions working on "the ranch" but it's no longer "Miss Olive's ranch."
- The show has aged well, in my opinion, but it doesn't hold up against the "grittier" or "more realistic" shows like Deadwood.
In a way, it's that last point that leads me to this; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, is not the show that I remember. The stories haven't changed; I remember what happened in some episodes and can figure out the rest. And I still enjoyed the slow build of the first season's tension with Sully and Dr. Mike--the birthday episode stands out for me in that regard.
What's changed is me.
When I was sixteen, going on seventeen (thank you, Sound of Music, I'm never gonna get that song out of my head now), I was in a different place in my life and my development. I was still in high school (I graduated in '94), I had only just started working part time, and, well, I was a teenager.
Teenaged Kelex thought that Dr. Mike was perfect, that Sully was just the dreamiest thing ever! and that most of the townspeople were irritating because they existed solely to be in the way.
Adult Kelex sees things a lot differently. Sully is still just the dreamiest thing ever, couldn't you just die!, but Dr. Mike is far from perfect, and the townspeople are a lot more interesting than they used to be.
At the time, I didn't care why Olive disappeared and Dorothy appeared. Now, I'm kinda curious. (If you know, seriously, chime in the comments. Link me. Something.)
At the time, Jake and Hank were jerks, and Horace was just a bumbling sweetie. Now, though, I see in Hank the prototype of Al Swearengen (yes, I'm a Deadwood junkie.), a saloon-keeper that in his own stunted ways, loves his whore Trixie-- I mean, Myra. Jake blows hot and cold, but after learning about how he was raised (or not raised, seeing as how he was abandoned as a child), I understand him a lot more and find that he's actually intriguing to me.
It's Dr. Mike, though, that surprised me the most. I find her almost unbearably prim, sometimes shrill, holier-than-thou, and determined to push her opinions on everybody else--oddly enough, all the things the male characters on the show accuse her of being. Rather, the male adults. Even Sully gets his share of it, asking her (in various episodes) what's missing in her, why does she have to be the one to fix everything, and doesn't she see that the decisions she makes affects more than just her.
The second season Christmas episode, A Christmas Tale--Dr. Mike's Dream even has a couple of the ladies--Myra and Dorothy--speaking in lovingly exasperated terms about Dr. Mike's stubbornness and tendency to lecture and put forth her opinions. As a young teenaged girl, I just thought they were being more snobby and jealous of Dr. Mike, but as an adult, I realize they're being honest.
I realized that as a teenager, I saw her exactly the way that Dr. Mike's teenage daughter, Colleen sees her--perfect. (Colleen actually gives voice to that thought in Buffalo Soldiers.) As an adult, I can see both her good traits and her flaws--and given that I'm older now than Dr. Mike (remember, she was turning 35 in season 1's Happy Birthday) I can understand their irritation with the character--because I share it.
And that's why I think the show's aged well overall. Despite the fact my perception of the characters have morphed and changed with time and experience, the show itself hasn't changed. I stilll enjoy it as much, if not more than, I did as a teenager because I get more out of it. It saddens me that a show that's nearly twenty-five years old is still timely; episodes about domestic violence, racism, abuse of power by authority, the place of women in a changing world, all of these issues and more are just as relevant today as when the episodes first aired.
But that's an essay for another day, and one that I don't feel qualified to get into right now.
The point that I mean to make, and I think got lost a few paragraphs back is, tune into those older shows you loved growing up. You'll not only get the nostalgic warm-fuzzies, but you might find you enjoy them a little more now that you're old enough to discover the layers.
Like a cake. Or an onion.
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